Link to origional interview. (I'm in the second segement.)

The two characters don't have many similarities, but the actresses have a striking one: Decades ago, Mooney and Muellerleile appeared as Blanche and Eunice, respectively, in a student production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" that changed both of their lives.

As the women tell the story, the play's director, a friend of Tennessee Williams, was so impressed with his young University of Minnesota cast that he invited the late playwright to come and see the production.

Williams, too, was delighted by the performance of his celebrated play - so delighted that he told Mooney, then a young drama student, that he'd never seen a finer Blanche Dubois.

According to Mooney, "He said to me" - she lowered her normal alto to a Tennessee-whiskey baritone - " 'You have to come to New York.' He said, 'We need you there.'"